Burnaps honored with CAA Lifetime Achievement Award

During the Central Adirondack Association’s Spring Fling on Tuesday, June 5, at Thendara Golf Club, the organization presented its Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of the late Frank Burnap and his wife, Beverly Burnap.

The couple moved to Old Forge from Pennsylvania in October 1971 with their 2-year old daughter, Hilary.

Their second daughter, Jenny, was born that December.

They had just purchased the big building in Thendara (the site of Adirondack Outdoor Center) which would become the Farm Market produce business.Frank, who had worked in research and development for the food industry before moving to Old Forge, and was always fascinated with food, decided to add breakfasts during the winter for the increasing amount of snowmobile visitors.

Frank took to the grill while Beverly helped in the kitchen and hostessed.

In 1980 the business evolved into the very successful Farm Restaurant.

Frank, who passed away on June 13, 2010, is still fondly known as “Mr. Apple”—a name carried over from his original produce stand.

“We would get bins of apples to sell in the fall. I’d sit out front with a box of apples and Frank would wear an orchard picking bag,” Beverly said.

Beverly said that Chip Kiefer, then a Town of Webb School student, told Frank his class was trying to raise money for a schoolproject, and Frank, the entrepreneur, suggested that he sell his apples at soccer games to make money.

According to Beverly, Frank said, “I’ll sell you an apple for a nickel and you sell it for a quarter. If anyone asks you where you got it, you say, ‘Mr. Apple in Thendara. He has really good apples that aren’t from the state of Washington.’”

Chip said later, “I can’t believe how much money we made.”

“He was a showman,” Beverly said.

She recalled that Frank would ring a cow bell in the restaurant to announce someone’s birthday,  or he would talk about the antique tools that were hung along the walls.

“And people would line up to sit at the Bat Table,” said Beverly. “The rubber bat with red eyes  was lowered slowly by pulley onto the middle of the table to startle people. It was good fun,” she said.

Beverly, who was originally from Pennsylvania, was a stewardess for United Airlines and living in New York City when she met Frank through mutual friends.

At the time he lived in New Jersey and was employed by Grand Union Family Markets in the Research and Development Department.

After a couple of dates, Frank, a Dartmouth College graduate who grew up in Pelham, NY, asked Beverly if she would like to go to his family’s camp in the Adirondacks to help clean it and get it open for the summer season.

She didn’t know what to make of his invitation, and she didn’t even know where the Adiron-dacks were.

“I’d like it if you’d go with me,” he said, and she said yes.

The family camp was located on Little Moose Lake at the Adirondack League Club and it was there that she met Frank’s family.

The couple married in 1967 and spent their first few years living in a suburb of Philadelphia, with Frank commuting an hour and a half each day to his job at Food Fair in Philadelphia.

When the opportunity arose to start their own business in Old Forge, they didn’t hesitate.

Beverly, said there was never a dull moment during the 43 years that she and Frank were married.

“He was a character. He was one of a kind and fun to be married to. He was such a jokester and he had his own little ‘Frankisms’ that kept you laughing,” she said.

Photography and gardening were favorite hobbies, Beverly said, and he loved sports.

“He was also a good father to our daughters, Hilary and Jenny, and he taught them a good work ethic,” she said.

That work ethic was ingrained in Frank, who had worked at a supermarket bagging groceries when he was in high school.

That’s where he gained his first experiences with the food industry and customer service.

That early training was instrumental in the success of the Farm Market and the Farm Restaurant, which drew thousands of repeat patrons and visitors until Frank and Beverly’s retirement in 2006.

Today, Beverly keeps herself busy with her involvement in various community organizations.

She has been a member of the Xi Gamma Iota local chapter of Beta Sigma Phi since 1972, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Home Aide Service of the Central Adirondacks (HASCA). She also volunteers as an assistant at the Kinderwood Preschool Program two days a week.

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